Most Recent Posts

We so regularly excuse the chicanery of sport. We fans suspect that our team is just as guilty as whatever ooze bubbles to the surface elsewhere, so let it go lest we be the next one caught. For us privileged to actually be down in the rabbit hole, the sins have been so present for so long, they simply become accepted as a benign part of the landscape. Hey, it's all just fun and games, so go along, be a — well, be a good sport.

Only, every now and then ...

Every now and then the evils are just so gross that you have to blink open the blind eye. Sorry. Such was the past week.

Click on the audio link above to hear Deford's take on the issue.

Since Oregon legalized physician-assisted suicide for the terminally ill in 1997, more than 700 people have taken their lives with prescribed medication — including Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old with an incurable brain tumor, who ended her life earlier this month.

Advocates of assisted-suicide laws believe that mentally competent people who are suffering and have no chance of long-term survival, should have the right to die if and when they choose. If people are have the right to refuse life-saving treatments, they argue, they should also have the freedom to choose to end their own lives.

Opponents say that such laws devalue human life. Medical prognoses are often inaccurate, they note — meaning people who have been told they will soon die sometimes live for many months or even years longer. They also argue that seriously ill people often suffer from undiagnosed depression or other mental illnesses that can impair their ability to make an informed decision.

At the latest event from Intelligence Squared U.S., two teams addressed these questions while debating the motion, "Legalize Assisted Suicide."

Before the debate, the audience at the Kaufman Music Center in New York was 65 percent in favor of the motion and 10 percent against, with 25 percent undecided. After the debate, 67 percent favored the motion, with 22 percent against, making the team arguing against the motion the winner of this debate.

Those debating:

Web Resources

Listen To The Full Audio Of The Debate

1 hr 36 min 47 sec

Playlist

Download

Read A Transcript

FOR THE MOTION

Peter Singer is a philosopher and author, best known for his work in ethics. He is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University, a position that he now combines with the part-time position of Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne. Some of his more recent books include The Point of View of the Universe and The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty. In 2014 the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute ranked him third on its list of Global Thought Leaders, and Time has ranked him among the world's 100 most influential people. An Australian, in 2012 he was made a Companion to the Order of Australia, his country's highest civilian honor.

Andrew Solomon is a writer, lecturer and a professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University. Solomon's newest book, Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity, won the National Book Critics Circle award for nonfiction and was chosen as one of the New York Times "Ten Best Books" of 2012. Solomon's previous book, The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression won the National Book Award for nonfiction and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He is a director of the University of Michigan Depression Center and Columbia Psychiatry; a member of the board of visitors of Columbia University Medical Center; serves on the national advisory board of the Depression Center at the University of Michigan, and on the advisory board of the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance. In 2011, he was appointed special advisor on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Mental Health at the Yale School of Psychiatry.

i i

Dr. Daniel Sulmasy, with debate partner Ilora Finlay, argues that policies legalizing physician-assisted suicide are unethical. Samuel LaHoz/Intelligence Squared U.S. hide caption

itoggle caption Samuel LaHoz/Intelligence Squared U.S.

Dr. Daniel Sulmasy, with debate partner Ilora Finlay, argues that policies legalizing physician-assisted suicide are unethical.

Samuel LaHoz/Intelligence Squared U.S.

AGAINST THE MOTION

Baroness Ilora Finlay, a leading palliative care physician, is president of the British Medical Association, president of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, and is a past president of the Royal Society of Medicine. She has led the Palliative Care Strategy Implementation Board in Wales since 2008, and chaired the Welsh Medical and Dental Academic Advisory Board since 2012. Finlay was a general practitioner in inner-city Glasgow before returning to Cardiff to work full-time in care of the terminally ill. She works at the Velindre Cancer Centre, covering South East Wales when clinically on call. Finlay started the Marie Curie Hospice in Wales and since 2008 has responsibility on behalf of Welsh Government for strategic oversight of all hospice and palliative care services in Wales. Since 2001, Finlay has been an Independent Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords.

Dr. Daniel Sulmasy is the Kilbride-Clinton Professor of Medicine and Ethics in the Department of Medicine and Divinity School at the University of Chicago, where he serves as associate director of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics and as director of the Program on Medicine and Religion. Sulmasy was appointed to the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues by President Obama in 2010. His research interests encompass both theoretical and empirical investigations of the ethics of end-of-life decision-making, ethics education and spirituality in medicine. He is the author or editor of six books, including Safe Passage: A Global Spiritual Sourcebook for Care at the End of Life. He also serves as editor-in-chief of the journal, Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics.

physician-assisted suicide

suicide

Roberto Gmez Bolaos, a popular Mexican comedic actor and screenwriter known by the nickname "Chespirito," has died at age 85 after a long illness, Latin Times reports.

The newspaper says Bolaos died of heart failure in Cancun.

The Associated Press notes: "His morning show was a staple for preschoolers, much like Captain Kangaroo in the United States.

"He warmed the hearts of millions with a clean comedy style far removed from the sexual innuendo and obscenity-laced jokes popular today. In a career that started in the 1950s, he wrote hundreds of television episodes, 20 films and theater productions that drew record-breaking audiences," the AP says.

Hoy se fue una gran persona que siempre supo como sacarle una sonrisa a todos. D.E.P Roberto Gmez Bolaos! CH pic.twitter.com/j6mxE3nAfR

— Ral Jimnez (@Raul_Jimenez9) November 28, 2014

Latin Times says of him: "The actor is famous for his characters on El Chavo del 8, El Chapuln Colorado, and other shows. Born in Mexico City in 1929, Gomez Bolaos was writing scripts and screenplays in his early twenties, despite studying for being an engineer. The all-rounded artist also composed songs and scripts for radio shows. It was in the 1960's, when the two most popular Mexican television shows on air were written by Gomez Bolaos, that he earned the nickname Chespirito from director Agustn P. Delgado. The nickname, which he would later be recognized by around the world, translates to 'Shakespearito' or 'Little Shakespeare.'"

Among other things, Simpsons creator Matt Groening has said that seeing Bolaos' antics on Mexican television inspired the character Bumblebee Man that has been a recurring character on the long-running American animated cartoon.

"The Hispanic market has never had such a beloved celebrity like Roberto Gomez Bolanos and perhaps there will never be one like him," said Maca Rotter, executive director of Televisa Consumer Product, was quoted by Latin Times as saying. "He has been a Mexican icon for past and future generations, considering that his heritage is more alive than ever."

Television

Dave Arnold can work some serious magic with a cocktail shaker. But he's no alchemist — Arnold, who runs the Manhattan bar Booker and Dax, takes a very scientific approach to his craft.

Liquid Intelligence

The Art and Science of the Perfect Cocktail

by Dave Arnold and Travis Huggett

Hardcover, 416 pages | purchase

Purchase Featured Book

TitleLiquid IntelligenceSubtitleThe Art and Science of the Perfect CocktailAuthorDave Arnold and Travis Huggett

Your purchase helps support NPR Programming. How?

Amazon

iBooks

Independent Booksellers

Nonfiction

Food & Wine

More on this book:

NPR reviews, interviews and more

Arnold, author of Liquid Intelligence: The Art and Science of the Perfect Cocktail, has some advanced tricks will help you up your game in time for holiday cocktail parties. And while some of them — like his liquid nitrogen techniques — aren't for the faint of heart, one of his favorite secrets is a simple, low-tech ingredient: salt.

"That's what I tell everyone," he tells NPR's Ari Shapiro. "Next time you make cocktails, make a drink, don't add any salt [and] taste it. Then just put a pinch in afterwards, stir it and taste the difference."

As for that liquid nitrogen, it's the key to the Thai Basil Daiquiri, one of Arnold's signature drinks. The basil's anise flavor notes make it a fantastic herb for drinks, he says.

i i

How to muddle your cocktail with herbs: Left: Pick your herbs. Center: After muddling, it should look like this. Right: Add liquor, let thaw, then add syrups and shake with ice. Strain drink through a tea strainer into a chilled coupe glass. Travis Huggett/W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. hide caption

itoggle caption Travis Huggett/W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

How to muddle your cocktail with herbs: Left: Pick your herbs. Center: After muddling, it should look like this. Right: Add liquor, let thaw, then add syrups and shake with ice. Strain drink through a tea strainer into a chilled coupe glass.

Travis Huggett/W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

(A note of caution: Liquid nitrogen is extremely cold – Arnold works with it at minus 196 degrees Celsius. Read the warning label before attempting to use it.)

In traditional muddling, grinding releases an herb's flavors and oils into a cocktail. "The problem is, [a muddled leaf] starts turning black almost immediately," when enzymes in the herb react with oxygen, Arnold explains.

But when the leaves are frozen with liquid nitrogen, Arnold says, they become so cold and brittle that they can be easily powered and used to create fine infusions. And because those enzymes are deactivated by high-proof ethanol – booze – combining the powder with liquor retains the herb's bright color, Arnold explains.

Eater/YouTube

Watch Dave Arnold explain how to make his Thai Basil Daiquiri using liquid nitrogen.

Arnold also has a pretty spectacular party trick that uses a much older technology: a sabre, used to knock the top off a bottle of Champagne or sparkling wine. Luckily, almost any kitchen knife, like a chef's knife, will do.

The Salt

Can Hand-Cut, Artisanal Ice Make Your Cocktail That Much Better?

The Salt

Rum Renaissance Revives The Spirit's Rough Reputation

And don't worry — if you do it properly, Arnold says, you needn't worry about ending up drinking shards of glass. "I've done high-speed photography of it, and looked at it, and the force and the pressure are such that the glass shards always travel away from the beverage."

If you listen to the conversation in the audio player above, Arnold will walk you through his sabering technique. Just take care where you try this technique, he notes. "I have broken a window in my bathroom" doing this, he says, so try it out "in a place that you're not worried."

dave arnold

cocktails

herbs

liquid nitrogen

bartender drinks

food science

alcohol